Wire-glass



AVl SHUMAN.

WIRE GLASS.

APPLICATIUN FILED MAR. 30, 1916. 1,355,625. Patented 0n'12,1920.

Al c ngz ' aww/tof ma.; fag/@MM UNI-TED STATES PATENT" orpi-cgfollowing `is a specification- VICTOR SHUMAN, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, V.ASSIGNQR T0 THE SPER` VGLASS COMPANY, ACORPORATION 0E PENNSYLVANIA. Y

A WIRE-GLASS. y

Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, andx State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in fire-Glass, of which lthe VThe object of my invention is to provideV an improved Construction of Wire glass which, While having all `of the advantageous qualities of Wiregglass heretofore in use, Will embody a further feature of construction Wherebygthe radiant heat, in case of fire, is to a very material extent prevented from passing through the glass, said result being secured by lprovid-ing Within the glass a sheet or layer of organic-material which,

by application of heat, assumes an effective condition ofathermancyv to the radiant heat. In theV general use of Wire glass, it is desirable that itshall have transparency or yat least bev su'Hiciently translucent to light that the 'illuminationof the interior of the building or room isnot interfered with, and y as most" substancesy Whichafre reasonably athermous are :also VmoreV or less epaque to light, I prefertoeinploy aninterposed layer between the glass' sheets and v preferably uniting them, which shall normally be transparent or reasonably `translucent to light and capable of being transformed, When Asubjected to heat, intoacondition having la pronounced athermancy or power of arresting the transmission'of radiant heat incase of fire;

When Wire glass is -set in a lire-proof y frame, it Will hold lback a lfierce lire Afor many hours, because, although it may freely crack, the glass is held together by the Wire. mesh, and higher heat Welds the crackedv glass pieces together again.

.Vhen the flames impinge'against Wire glass for a reasonably long time, the Wire glass becomes red hot, Vand almost White hot, and as it is a transparent material, the Vradiant heat passes through it. Y glass serves as a lire Wall, perishable goods Within siX feet ofthe Wire glass become charred and spoiled by the radiant heat of the fire, which goes through the wire glass.

vAlso, persons `cannot pass With safety a rea- Application filed March 3Q, 1916.l Serial No. 87,701.v

Therefore, when Wire speicatioh'of Leiter-armena Patel'lited Oct.v 12, 1920,Y

sonable area thus heated,.mainlyvbecause of the radiant heat Which gets through.

Y The special advantage of'niy'invention is, therefore, to produce an article which will resist-fire much .longer than. Will ordinary Wire. glass, and in doing soV stop, as far asY possible, the passage ofqal-l kinds of heat but vmainly-radiant heat. Wire glass will melt down after prolonged exposure to heat and any construction Which rvi-ll retard such action is most desirable, since it permits the firemen to have more time in which to act effectively before the spread lof the llames. This quality, aswell as the capacity of re-Y ducing to agreatextent the transmission of the radiant heat through thecompound vvire glass vis secured by-the construction to be hereinV described. Y f Y In constructing my,A improved Wire glass, l unite a sheet of Wire glass (preferably having one surface polished) to a sheet of plain glass `(also preferably having one surface polished) by a sheet of Celluloid, gelatin or any similar transparent or translucent material of organic composition which may be Welded'or attached tothe glass by any of the processes at Vpresent Well known, the

Celluloid or gelatin car-bonizing under action v of .heat and V'thus presenting a moreor less atherinic layer to stop the passage of the radiant heat. y

It will thus be seen that the invention consists in providing Wire glass sheet With a reinforcement of vadditional glass sheet and an interposed organic medium Which is normally transparent or translucent, but having capacity for being transformedby heat into Van opaque body less transparent or translucent and greatlyV moreathermous to radiant heat.V

ln the broadest form of my invention, the glass layers may beV united by a substance which is adiathermic to a large extent inits normal state such as alum or any of its compounds, though I prefer to employ a more transparent substance capable of strongly binding the layers of glass and of changing its own form'to one of an opaque condition presenting a strong barrier to the .passage of radiant heat in the event of a fire.

My 'invention also comprehends details Figure l is a. cross section of a sheet of wire glass embodying my invention; and Figs. 2, 3, l and 5 are similar sectional views of modified forms of my improved wire glass. Y

In the several figures, A and A andV A 1s the ordinary wire glass sheet, B and B the reinforce glass sheets and C and C the uniting layers of Celluloid or equivalent; The ordinary wire glass is made'by various methods, but the product comprises a sheet of glass having embedded within it a layer of meshed wire a, but as this article is so well known, no further detailed description will be necessary. The surfaces of the wire glass may be polished or not, as desired, but in the most approved form'of'my present invention, prefer that the surface be welded to the Celluloid or its .equivalent shall be polished. The reinforce glass layer B and Bmay be of any suitable glass but preferably polished plate, or at least having one of its surfaces polished. The layer C is preferably a sheet of' Celluloid welded or cemented or pasted to the glass surfaces. This may be accomplished by welding it under high heat and pressure to the glass surfaces, or by covering its surfaces with a thin layer of any kind of suitable cement or paste and then pressing it between the glass surfaces. lnstead of Celluloid, a sheet gelatin or other similar organic material.

may be used.

In Fig. l, I have shown the glass comT- structure as a whole to maintain its integrity in this construction as in that of Fig. l.

' In the Construction shown in Fig. 3, the reinforce sheet B of Fig. 1 has been replaced by a second wire glass sheet A, this of course being equivalent to the sheet B with the addition of the' Wire mesh a and the covering of glass.V lt will, be observed that, in this construction, the thickness of the second wire glass sheet is greater than the thickness of theV glass sheet B of Fig. l., and to that extent a more durable article is obtained and especially so, as it has an additional wirefm'esh reinforcement. The two wire glass sheets are united by the celluloifl layer 'C as in the other examples, and

whileV the VConstruction of Fig. 3 has not as ,great athermancy or power of stopping-rav Y(liant heat as that of Fig. 2, 1t has the advantage of greater mechanical strength.

ln Fig. 4L, l have shown a sheet or plain glass B and Celluloid layers C, C, upon its opposite surfaces, between the twowire glass sheets A and A, while in Fig. A5, l have shown the sheets yas in Fig. 3 with the addition of a sheet of plain glass B and an addi-` tional organic layer C.

lVhile l have.,in describing my invention,

made reference to the use of Celluloid, by Y.

way of example, it is to be understood thati gelatin or other` transparent or translucent material maybe made toadhere between the faces of the glass, either directly by heat and pressure or other means or by suitable cement or glue; and while Iprefer to cause the interposed layer to directly kweld to the glass surfaces, 1 do not restrict myself thereto. v

Instead of welding a sheet of Celluloid or other materiah'between thezsheet of wire glass andthe sheet of plate glass, or either of them, it may bev coated with the suffi- Ciently thick Coating of Celluloid solutions,

or gelatin solutions, containing sugar, tartaric acid, mixed with small Vproportions of,

forinstance, nitrate of soda, to aid'in the. carbonizing. These layers may only be thick enough to produce the black curtain.

The essential feature of my invention is to produce a composite sheet of glass, having'between two glass sheets any kind of material which will be transparent, or translucent, and which will turn dark'or black or take on such form under the action of heat,

as will make it adiathermous to keep the radiant heat from passing freely. VFor the mere purpose of producing a composite glass which will last longer against a re than wire glass now does, it is not even necessary that the material C should turn rblack or carbonize, so long as it, when acted on by the initial heat of the fire, will swell up or become porous and thus` produce a non-conducting adiathermic layer between the sheet 'of wire glass (if employed) and I the sheet of plain glass. The change to produce the adiathermancy in the layer C 'would begin at or about 300O Fahr. and be complete about 600o Fahr., or below red heat.

If the sheet of plain glass is settoward the lire, the fire immediately cracks this thin sheet and heats the organic layermvhich distils off all vrthe volatile matter, and' carbonizes therest into'a darker blaclrfcoat, ivhich coat serves as a vgood non-conductor to protectl the sheet of `Wire glass itself yfrointhe Iheat for a Vconsiderable time, both because the por'ouscharred layer ot organic matter is a splendid non-conductorV of ordinary; heat and also becausejmost of the radiant heat vis cut off by its dark color:

of the silicate of soda composition 'or other similar compounds, then it would not turnV dark, but Would swell up intova non-con- Vhile the bestand most practical results can be obtained by Welding or cementing the organic layer betweenthe sheets of glass,

-still certain benefits Would be derived by,

for instance. fastening the sheet of organic layer to only one of thesheets of the composition, or in case tivo sheets of Wire glass be used with a sheet of organic material between them, then the three could be merely laid together (the organic layerin the middle) and then the Whole closely set into a frame, as indicated at X in F ig. 3.

lt will now be apparent that I have devised a novel and useful construction Which embodies the features of Vadvantage enumerated as desirable, and While I have in the present instance shown and described the preferred embodimentthereof which has been found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that l do not restrict myself to the details, as the saine are susceptible of modification in various particulars Without departing from the spirit vor scope of the invention.

Having noiv described my invention, what I claim as neiv and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A fire resisting body, Vcomprising a Wire glass layer, combined with a second layer having a glass composition, and an interposed uniting layer of a material capable Yof arresting the passage of radiant `l'ieatvhen subjected to high temperature.

2. A iire resisting` body, comprising a Wire glass layer, combined with a second layer having a glass composition, and an interposed layer of a material Which is normally transparent or translucent to light but under the action of high temperature becomes athermous to radiant heat.

3. A fire resisting body, comprising a Wire glass layer, combined With a second layer having glass composition, and an interposed uniting layer of a material capable of retarding the passage of heat.

li. A fire resisting body, comprising a f the non'fconduct Y ing layers, for instance, were made of somer vWire glass layer, combinedfrvi-th a second layer having aglass composition, and anvinfV terposed uniting layer of a material capable of retarding kthe passage of heat when subjected tohightemperature.` f Y 5, A .firef resisting body, `comprising a Wireglass layer, combined With asecond y la er havin@ a Glass com ositionV an intero b .v Y posed layer of amaterial which is normally transparent vor VVtranslucentto. light "but under the action of high temperature becomes athermous to radiant heat, and Which is directly and intimately attached to the opposing glass surfaces to unite the several layers into a unitary body.

6. A fire resisting body, comprising a Wire glass layer, combined With a second layer having a glass composition, and an in- Y terposed layer of a pliable materialV firmly attached to the glass layers and Which is normally transparent or translucent to light but under the action of high temperature becomes darkened so as to be substantially opaque to light and athermous to radiant heat.

7. A. fire resisting body, comprising a plurality .of sheets of glass composition united by a layer of material normally transparent or translucent, but which under the action of high temperature becomes f porous, and Will act as a non-conductor of heat.

8. A fire resisting body, comprising a plurality of sheets of glass composition, at least one of which is a sheet of Wire glass, united by a layer of material normally transparent or translucent, but which under the action of high temperature becomes porous and Will act as a non-conductor of heat.

I 9. A fire resisting body, comprising a plurality of vsheets of glass composition, united by a layer of material normally transparent or translucent but 'which under the action of high temperature becomes opaque and athermous to radiant heat.

l0. A fire resisting body, comprising a plurality of sheets of glass composition having one or more interposed layers of organic material Which becomes athermous to radiant heat when exposed to high temperature, the Whole united intoV a unitary structure.

`ll. A fire resisting body, comprising a sheet of Wire glass, a sheet of plate glass, and an interposed layer of organic material between them.

12. A lire resisting body, comprising a sheet of Wire glass, arsheet of plate glass, and an interposed layer of organic materialr Y between them said organic layer normally transparent or translucent to light but opaque and athermous when highly heated.

13.,A iire resisting body, comprising va f plurality of sheets of Wire glass with an intergosed organic layer which is a-thermous when heated. A

14. A lire resisting body, comprising a plurality of sheets of Wire glass and a sheet of plein glass, combined with interposed sheet of Wire glass@ sheet of plate glass, and an'interposed layer of organic material irmly Welded or cemented between them.

ln testimony or -Whieh invention, I hereunto set my hand.

Y Vieron sHUMAN. Y

- Witnesses I ADELAIDE B. 'WATSON Cms. H. DUNHER. 

